Monthly Archives: March 2023

Every Women’s Secret Dream ❤️

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Gone are those days when they would say that every women’s Secret Dream was to find the best life partner! I understood this over the years, but sealed it on women’s day this year 2023.

When I started by day at 4am to meet around 60 odd beautiful women at 5am on 8th March 2023 little did I know that I am going to seal my thoughts about a few things that has been running in my mind for so many years now. Like I always realised that everyday is a new day and every day we learn something new, that too from people whom you have least expected to learn.

A slum behind the most prestigious university of Chennai, the Surya nagar slum. I have been associated with them since 2015 in various social activities from cyclone relief to children education thanks to my previous organisation that I got to closely work with them and continued my association even after I quit the organisation 3yrs ago. Our focus when I worked with them was always children and education. This time since I was doing something on my own along with a group of friends I thought of doing something for the women who always put their Children’s need before theirs.

When I started the discussion with them 3 weeks before the event, they all seemed to have time constraints, since most of them work as house helps, the only time they could spare was early morning and so be it, I didn’t blink an eyelid before I said yes to the wee hours. I was as excited as them to do something that could create value in their lives.

Contribution poured in from my lovely community group called ” Eat Pray and Love” as always they are my strength and motivation in whatever I plan to do. Since Surya nagar is located on the banks of the river the place has its own charm, we decided to put up a beautiful tent with flowers to add colour to the location.

The day started with the beautiful view of moon setting and enthusiastic women who were dressed in their best outfits at 5.30am, when I saw this I knew it is going to be a energy filled day.

Over the discussion about what each one of them wanted to be and learn it was an amazing revelation middle age women wanted to learn driving and wanted to work as driver’s, few wanted to learn stitching, baking, beautician course and most of them wanted to learn to speak English, now this I thought was so much of a confidence booster.

Finally it is not about what we told them or what knowledge we imparted to them, for us it was so much that we learnt from them too!

Happiness starts from”YOU” we were able to convey to these women that happiness of their family starts from they being happy and if they pursue what makes them happy they will be able to cascade that happiness to their family and they all agreed. We all spoke about how beautiful life is for everyone and we could live a happy life if we had gratitude in our hearts and pursue our dreams! Saying that we are now on a mission to help them fulfill their dreams! The morning that started at 5.30am concluded at 7.30am with a hearty breakfast, goodie bags, loads of love, happiness and gratitude in each one of our hearts 💖

Food From The Northern Hills Of India❤️

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Food from the northern hills of India by the beautiful Miss Shimla runner up Chef Sherry Mehta.

I am a big advocate of the fact the new exotic food is the homestyle regional food.

This time it was from the northern hills of India, by  chef Sherry Mehta

What I liked about the food was the richness and simplicity of flavours, each dish had an unique flavours and a story to tell. 

This marriage of Punjabi and kashmiri food for me was purely made in heaven. The  Dham ( festive food of Himachal Pradesh) curated by chef Sherry had very minimal spices I tasted the real flavour of every ingredient/ produce used and that for me is real good food.

Adraki panje(Lamb ribs with fat, milk, whole spices, and ginger)

Chamba Chukh Chicken Tikka (Tangy spicy Himachali chilli marinated chicken tikkas grilled to perfection in Tandoor)

The soft Matara Kulcha with stuffed tikki gave a run for a sour dough bread, I am sure we discovered sour dough much before anyone did!

Siddu, the traditional fermented stuffed steamed bread was another favourite of mine. This is available with lamb stuffing, vegetable stuffing and sweet ( coconut jaggery) stuffing.

A special mention for the most famous Himalayan trout that was absolutely fresh and cooked to perfection. This sure was a treat for us in Chennai!

Some of my favourite main course dishes were the Chaa  Gosht  (One of the most popular dishes from Himachal cooked in buttermilk and roasted gram flour based    gravy)

Channa Paneer Madra (Chickpeas slow cooked in a yoghurt based gravy along with cottage cheese and nuts, a star of any Himachali dhaam)

Gobi Ka Palda(Cauliflower cooked in yoghurt-based gravy thickened with rice flour)

Seb Aur Bhein Ki Sabji(Local vegetable dish made with apples and lotus stem)

Kale  Chane Ki Maahni (Dried raw mangoes from the hills are cooked with black grams to create this unique Himachali dish)

Sepu Wadi(Urad daal fritters cooked in a luscious spinach gravy was once a humble rural dish and now am ambassador of mandiyali dhaam)

The finale is always sweet with the most simple yet rich food and lovely people around! Budane Ka Meetha With  Rabri it was! (Any dhaam is incomplete without this sweet dish which kick starts any dhaam experience)

What did Women’s day 2023 at DriveStream, India look like for me!

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This one is for the men at DriveStream, Chennai, India.

“When you change your thoughts, remember to also change your world.”—Norman Vincent Peale. And that’s what the men at DriveStream  did for us women on this special day.

I don’t know where to start but let’s do it from when I entered the office the decor and vibe was splendid to know that you did it all by yourselves talked a million words.

The exchange of hampers was such a heartwarming experience specially for me, since I got to do it with my favorite Lakshmi who unconditionally takes care of our needs every single day. I made a new friend today, Guna who came across to me to hand over my hamper and I got to meet her for the first time and understood her hidden talent of how gracefully she can dance.

For the first time I got to witness so much talent all on one floor ( though it required a little persuasion and also meant me shaking my legs to ensure other girls felt comfortable to join the dance floor) but once the mood was set in there was not much to do but just sit back and enjoy rest of the afternoon with so much excitement and fun. I made so many new friends and was jumping with excitement like a teenager in college.

The cake was not only beautiful but was so tasty that I gobbled up a few pieces ( that’s very not me)  The lunch was more of a festivity and community dining it was. 

The highlight of the day that we spent was a beautiful comradeship that we all built around us by realising that each person is gifted with a skill that is unique and that appreciating each other and applauding another person’s talent is what talks about one’s kindness.

Be the woman who fixes another woman’s crown without telling the world that (it) is crooked. … Be kind! We never know the battle others are fighting. I hope that we can all find a way to lead with an open heart and assume positive intent.”

Thank you my dear men colleagues for creating an environment on this special day for us to cherish!

What did one day at Kozhikode look like!!!

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It was a very unplanned trip, we were in Coimbatore thinking if we should or shouldn’t go for the tharavad festival, keeping my mother in law’s health condition in mind. It was the once in a year tharavad ( family temple) Pooja and we are just 3hrs away by train, the night before we decided with loads of prayers in our hearts to make the decision to go.

4.30am out alarm rings and we started getting ready to hop into the cab to take the intercity train at 6am from Coimbatore station. We decided not to carry breakfast with us since we have had breakfast at shoranur station before and it was always so good. 7am and we were at palakkad and we couldn’t resist the call from the station outside ” vada, parapu Vada, pazham pori” our eyes widened and we ran outside to get one pack of it. Disappointed, the parapu vada was rock solid, the pazham pori was full of thick soda mixed batter with a thin slice of nendra pazham ( Banana) that barely had any taste or flavour and the medu vada was just like there! We took some pictures cause well they looked good and it went straight to the bin after one bite. Now we were waiting for Shoranur for the most awaited breakfast that we have always had few years ago. 8am Shoranur and we are ready to get off the train to get a pack of the breakfast with chaya. I excitedly open the pack and see 3 beautiful looking idlys with one vada. Hungry and happy next I open the sambar pack that smelt good, poured it next to the idly, next opened the chutney pack and ohh it was just plain sour green water with some salt and there started our disappointment, the whole packet of 3 idlis, Vada, sambar and chutney after one bite goes to the bin, I really feel bad to waste food, but this tasted off and couldn’t help but trashing it the tea was equally bad. Our memories of Shoranur station breakfast just shattered. Our plan was to get off at Calicut station and try out some nice breakfast near the station, but our cousin had other plans for us, he surprised us at the station and droves us straight to his house for the soulful appam and payar curry, our search for good breakfast ended at 10am at beypore, Calicut.

It was the tharavad festival and we headed to the temple soon after the breakfast. The Pooja had started a day before and it was a typical small town fare that I really love and miss most of the time. I was visiting the temple after a long time, the last time I was here, there was nothing only a few deities and stones. Must say my mother in law and husband have been instrumental in getting the temple into shape by supporting them with whatever they really needed each time, like few years back they wanted a well to be dug and they happily did it and ofcourse monetarily supported every initiative. We were glad we could atleast be there for a day to witness this splendid Pooja, wait as it unfolds.

The afternoon started with women chanting Amma narayana, Lakshmi Narayana and ended with various gods and goddesses showcasing their presence and blessings till wee hours of the morning, 6am to be precise. The community lunch was vegetarian Kerala food made using wood fire need not mention anything further it was divine.

The next morning after few hours of sleep and a sumptuous breakfast at home we decided to visit pappan ( our uncle, father in-laws younger brother) who due to his health couldn’t attend the temple festivities. We stopped buy a local bakery to pick up some goodies for pappan and I really wanted to eat it all, but resisted since I had a Big break of ottappam and chicken stew at home.

On our way back from visiting uncle/ pappan we stopped by a very small place that makes pappadam, this is so different from appalam made in tamilnadu and papad made in rest of India, this one puffs up like poori and is so delicious when fried using coconut oil. Spent sometime with the person making these and to my surprise they don’t individually roll them they take a big pile and pat it till thin like paper, ingredients used urad dal, salt, papad soda also know as papad khar and tapioca flour to pat it. Watching the process of making the papadam and packing it was soul touching. Special mention to the packing part the papadam were put into a plastic cover and sealed using candle flame and packed again in a newspaper. Life is so simple yet we make it complicated.

On our way back we also stopped by to buy some special kaima rice from a store I assume it’s the same as jeera samba but this one I hear is grown in the Malabar region. Hence wanted to try kaima rice from its birth place.

Came home to the flavours of Malabar briyani in the back yard. Our cousins had decided to surprise us with wood fire Malabar biryani. We surely were running out of time and did not know if we had the time to relish this one and hence decided to pack it for our train journey. We felt so bad that they took so much efforts to make the biryani with so much love for us and we were like why all this trouble after a sleepless night, they said “this is our way of showering love to the people we love the most” and that for me was definitely the highlight of this beautiful one day trip to Calicut/ Kozhikode!

Grateful that we could make the best of these 24hrs that was gifted to us! We are thankful to every person we encountered during the best 24hrs is Calicut/ Kozhikode! Looking forward to spend a few more days to really enjoy so much more that “God’s own country” has to offer us!